Students told to speak English

JAKARTA (JP): The governor of West Sumatra has urged the educational authorities to force university students to speak English on campus on at least two days a week.

Governor Hasan Basri Durin told a gathering in Padang over the weekend that English had become more and more important in the age of globalization, but that only few Indonesians could speak it well.

Speaking at the commemoration of the 15th anniversary of the University of Bung Hatta, the governor said that in many parts of the world English determines many people's future.

"Only those with good English are successful in their career," he said.

Indonesians' Achilles heel today is that their knowledge of English is far behind Malaysians and Filipinos, he argued. "This factor has caused the Indonesian economy and education to lag behind those of the two countries in some respects," Hasan said.

Citing an example, the governor said that in the 1970s the standard of Malaysian education was far behind Indonesia's, but now the standard of its universities has significantly improved.

"This has been made possible by the people's ability to speak English. They had better opportunities to further their studies at universities abroad."

Hasan said that more than 60 percent of lecturers in Malaysia had master or doctorate degrees, and this fact had also helped boost the standard of universities there.

"Malaysia has also got study programs which have not been introduced in Indonesia," he said.

Hasan said that the West Sumatran businessmen in his party on his trip to Malaysia and Singapore recently lost the war even before the battle had started, because their English was too poor to enter into negotiations with the hosts.

According to the governor, the fact that Filipinos speak far better English has resulted in a number of Filipino managers being employed in Indonesia. (tis)